


Lockdown Blues

by RushingHeadlong



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Early Queen (Band), Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, References to quarantine/self-isolation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23985550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RushingHeadlong/pseuds/RushingHeadlong
Summary: Freddie has made it his mission to keep everyone’s spirits up while they’re stuck at home. He doesn’t think the others have noticed - but they have, and they’re ready to remind him that they have his back too.
Relationships: John Deacon & Brian May & Freddie Mercury & Roger Taylor
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41





	Lockdown Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr at @rushingheadlong and written for a prompt from @tenderbri. 
> 
> There are references to the boys being stuck at home for an indefinite amount of time. The cause for this is never specifically discussed, but given the current world situation please read with care.

Living with his three friends and band mates was the best idea Freddie had ever had. They all had their moods, of course, and fights were inevitable, but the anger never lasted long and the flat was always more full of laughter than of shouting. 

At least, it _had_ been that way. Lately, though, with all of them stuck at home together, things are unusually quiet as the stress and worry slowly sinks over the household. 

Brian slips into one of his low moods, hardly leaving his bedroom for days at a time - though Freddie suspects that he goes up to the roof in the middle of the night to try and look at the stars. He still has his thesis to work on but he’s not making much progress on it. No matter how many times they reassure Brian that he doesn’t have to be completely productive right now, Freddie knows that their soft-hearted guitarist is weighed down with guilt for not using this time to do _more_. 

John is the opposite. John finished up a semester’s worth of coursework almost overnight, and has been pacing the apartment desperate for something to do ever since then. He’s gone over their joint finances with a fine-toothed comb to figure out how to stretch their meager savings with none of them working at the moment. If any of them can make things work it’ll be John, but the tight set line of his mouth as he tallies up the figures isn’t an encouraging sight. 

With the stall temporarily closed and their gigs cancelled for the foreseeable future, Roger has been in a bear of a mood. The only thing stopping him from chain-smoking to deal with the stress is the threat of running out of cigarettes altogether, and without a kit in the house he’s taken to drumming on any available flat surface at all hours of the day. Freddie has half a mind to break his sticks himself, unless John does it first. 

As for Freddie… Well, he’s actually almost fine. He’s worried, of course he is, but the four of them are safe and as near as they can tell their families are safe as well. He doesn’t have schoolwork to stress about, he’s always been hopeless with the finances, and the forced downtime has inspired a number of new songs that they can work on when they can get back in the studio. 

So Freddie is fine - but his friends are not, so Freddie takes it upon himself to cheer them up however he can. 

He gives Roger his new songs so he can work out drum parts for them. He makes tea for John while he shuffles around their budget for the third time that week, and he gently coaxes Brian out of the house to go grocery shopping in hopes that the fresh air will brighten his spirits. He gathers everyone together for game nights, and subtly breaks up fights before they can really begin, and does everything in his power to keep their spirits up… but it’s not enough. 

Brian still stays quiet and burdened by his unnecessary guilt. John still obsessively pours over their finances. Roger still paces through the apartment like a caged tiger on a short fuse. And Freddie knows that he can’t fix this completely, that there’s only so much he can do when the world is going to pieces around them, but he still feels like there has to be something more he can do to help. 

Freddie lies on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, wracking his mind for something, _anything_ , he can try to make things a bit better for his friends. He started making a list an hour or so ago but now it lies discarded at his side, because all of his ideas are utterly useless.

He can’t cook them a nice dinner because, well, he can’t cook. Period. He’s already forced so many game nights on them that he thinks they might riot if he even _thinks_ the word “Scrabble”. There’s no extra money to pick up a treat at the grocery store, and there’s no use in trying to surprise them with a new movie John can pirate anything they could ever want. He’s written so many songs already and each has only been a passing distraction for Roger, and Brian’s mood has been so bleak that there’s no room for music in his world at the moment. 

“This is pointless,” Freddie grumbles as he flings an arm dramatically across his eyes. “This is all fucking pointless.”

And maybe Freddie isn’t as _fine_ as he thought he was, because as soon as he has that thought something inside him breaks, just a little. He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t scream. He doesn’t throw his notebook across the room. He just sighs, and rolls over to face the wall, and gives up. 

Because all he’s done, since this entire mess started, was try to make his friends happy. And if he can’t do that anymore… then what’s the point?

Freddie sleeps, for a little while. And he smokes out his window until his lungs burn, and when John knocks on the door around dinner time Freddie, in a fit of pique, pretends not to hear him. _If Brian can hide in his room for days on end, then so can I_ , Freddie thinks bitterly, and the pettiness of the thought fills him with shame. 

He doesn’t want to get up the next morning. His one distraction is gone, and without it he doesn’t think he can muster up the energy to keep pretending that he’s alright. He doesn’t think he can go out there and smile at his friends and make John tea and give Roger new songs and coax Brian into being social for a little while. And if Freddie can’t cheer up his friends he thinks that maybe he should just stay in here, so at least his foul mood doesn’t make things worse for them.

And just when Freddie thinks he’s made up his mind, and he’s not going to leave this room until he absolutely has to… he smells something burning. 

Freddie is out of bed in a flash, because what if Brian can’t smell the smoke in his room and Roger is outside having a cigarette and John slipped and fell and can’t get help and-

The scene in kitchen is certainly one of chaos, but not quite of the sort that Freddie had been expecting to see. 

There is something burning but it’s just in the microwave, and you see Roger fish out a charred bag of popcorn as Brian throws open the kitchen window. John is stirring something in a pot on the stove and shouting at Roger, who’s shouting back at him as he throws the bag into the sink, and Brian grabs a tea towel and starts waving it try to clear the smoke. 

And they’re _laughing_. 

Freddie can’t remember the last time he’s seen all three of them laughing. 

Roger is the first to notice Freddie standing in the doorway to the kitchen and he says, “Oh, shit! Freddie- fuck, you weren’t supposed to see this yet, it’s not ready!”

“See what? You three nearly burning the place down?” Freddie says. It’s supposed to be a joke, but it comes out a bit too sharp. A day ago that would have gotten Brian shrinking in on himself, and Roger gearing up for a fight, and John going tense and silent - but today they all just _laugh._

“That wasn’t the plan, no,” Brian says, and there’s amusement in his voice. Freddie hadn’t quite realized how much he missed hearing that, until now. “Roger found some old bags of popcorn buried in the back of the cupboard, and John looked up a few recipes for seasonings, and we thought-”

“Movie night!” Roger finishes for him. “Your pick, Fred!”

Freddie blinks at them and considers that. A movie night _does_ sound like a good plan, and it’s nice to see the three of them in such high spirits. “Alright,” he says at last. “But you all should pick the movies-”

“No,” John interrupts. “This night is for you.”

“What?”

“We know what you’ve been doing, you know,” Roger says. “Distracting us, trying to cheer us up… and don’t get me wrong, we appreciate it, but it’s your turn now.”

“You’ve been stressed too. You may be a bit better at hiding it, but we’ve finally noticed. So you pick the movies tonight, whatever you want to watch,” Brian adds. He tosses the tea towel down on the counter and wrinkles his nose. “ _God_ , Rog, the whole flat is going to stink for the rest of the day!”

“Then light a candle or something, Brian, I don’t know what to tell you!”

“With the way things are going, if I do that then we’ll _actually_ burn the place down!”

And Freddie laughs. Roger, Brian, and John are visibly startled and Freddie is actually a little startled too, because it’s _genuine_. He’s done plenty of laughing since this whole mess started but it’s almost always been forced, a show of normalcy to try to make his friends feel better - but it’s not forced anymore. 

“Thank you,” he says and he means it, with every fiber of his being. “Thank you, my darlings. I needed this.”

Roger hip-checks him as he walks by to put another bag of popcorn into the microwave. “We know,” Roger says, and behind him Brian quickly - and a little frantically - adjusts the settings before Roger pushes the start button. “So, what movies are we watching?”

Freddie thinks about that for a moment. “How much alcohol do we still have?”

“Enough,” John tells him. “Why…?”

“And can I _really_ pick any movie, or do you lot have veto power?”

The three of them exchange a bit of a worried look, but Brian admits, “We, ah- No. No, we weren’t going to give ourselves veto power.”

“But I’m regretting that now,” Roger mutters. 

“Good.” Freddie beams at them. “We’re watching _Cats_.”

“No,” Roger says immediately. “God, please, no…”

“The new movie, or the stage play…?” Brian asks, though he doesn’t sound like he really wants to know the answer.

Freddie grins wickedly as he says, “Both. One, and then the other. I’ll let you choose which one we watch first.”

The three of them look pained and John is the first to sigh and say. “Well. We _did_ say he could pick anything.”

John leaves the popcorn making up to Brian so he can go find copies of the movies to pirate. Roger also decides to leave the popcorn to Brian and instead takes control of the alcohol, while Freddie lights a few candles in the living room to help mask the faint burning smell still drifting through the flat. 

By the time the food and drink is squared away John has the first movie queued up and the four of them settle onto the couch in a tangle of limbs. Someone’s drink is guaranteed to get spilled, and Roger is already flicking popcorn at the TV when he thinks no one is looking, and it’s messy, and chaotic, and _loud_ in a way that none of them have been in weeks. 

Maybe tomorrow Brian will withdraw again, and John’s brow will furrow with stress, and Roger will break another pair of drumsticks in frustration - but Freddie isn’t worrying about any of that right now. He’s not worrying about how to put on a brave face and cheer up his friends, and he’s not worrying about the future or the world outside their door. 

All Freddie is thinking, as the opening credits draw to a close and Brian makes a horrified noise as the movie starts in earnest, is that living with his three friends was _absolutely_ the best decision that Freddie ever made. 


End file.
